I’ve decided to ditch playing out of Wynton Marsalis’ Carnaval book as I think it’s holding me back. I mean that in the sense that I’m just hacking away at the music during my practise sessions without making any improvements, except maybe with finger dexterity.

I keep doing this, but I’m going back to basics and just practising out of Clarke’s Technical studies and the Arban and it seems to already be paying dividends. I haven’t got much range, I’m comfortable and can play melodies up to G on top of the stave, but for solo work and solo cornet in band I really need to be able to play up to a high C (two ledger lines up) and occassionally a bit more. Certainly for solo work I would need up to E/F above high C. On Monday during my warmup where I play semitone ascending intervals from second line G I managed to get up to a nice clear, loudish high D; I’d not done that since I changed my embouchure. Trouble is I can’t consistently do it yet and do it when playing melodies. So when it came to running through Buster Strikes Back I only managed to get two of the four high Cs, and in subsequent practise sessions I got nowhere near it. Anyway, if I stick to a methodical approach it’ll come one day.

We had a good rehearsal on Tuesday night. Fantastic attendance, I was a bit late and had trouble finding a spot to park, which is a nice problem to have. We spent most of the rehearsal on Partita for the Areas. We perhaps didn’t play it as well as we can do, but Martyn spent a lot of time on ensemble playing which will help with producing a balanced performance. Just need to tame those trombones:-)

No rehearsal with the St. Albans brass group last night as there was a church service going on so we all met up at the pub and had a drink and chin wag. I had to return a trumpet I’d borrowed with a view to buying but I think I’m going to buy a new Conn International, which seems very good value for money and my former tutor reckons they are the best student model trumpet he’s played for years and he’d perform professionally on one. I think Lou’s going to get me one for my birthday, can’t wait!